Dmitry Medvedev says Pussy Riot should not be in prison

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said that two members of the Pussy
Riot feminist opposition group should not have been given jail sentences for
performing a "punk prayer" in Moscow's main cathedral.

Pussy Riot members (L-R) Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass cage at a court room in Moscow, Russia, last month.Photo: AP

"These are unpleasant figures, both on the outside and on the inside," Mr Medvedev, a lawyer by training, said of the two young women. "They provoke extremely negative emotions in me, so unpleasant that I don't even like to talk about it.

"But if I was a judge I wouldn't have sent them to prison. Just because I don't consider it correct that their punishment was in the form of a custodial sentence. They'd already been [in pre-trial detention], and that was enough."

Mr Medvedev's comments came as the cult animated sitcom South Park aired a new episode in the United States in which Jesus Christ rips open his robe to reveal a T-shirt with the slogan, "Free Pussy Riot".

The episode is an ironic look at the folly of supporting good causes.

South Park has prompted the attention of Russian authorities in the past. A scene lampooning Mr Putin was cut for Russian viewers in 2009.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alekhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, were sentenced in August to two years in jail over the cathedral protest in February, in which they criticised the Orthodox Church for supporting President Vladimir Putin.

The women's detention and trial on hooliganism charges provoked worldwide condemnation and was viewed as being orchestrated by Mr Putin's circle.

Miss Samutsevich was released on appeal last month while Miss Tolokonnikova and Miss Alekhina, who each have a young child, were sent to prisons in Russia's Mordovia and Perm regions.

Mr Medvedev, who was president until May this year, has spoken against the harshness of the Pussy Riot sentence in the past, and he repeated his position on Friday [[[TODAY]]] at a meeting with students in Moscow.

The prime minister's comments were in marked contrast to those of Mr Putin, who said last month that the women should have immediately asked for forgiveness after the stunt. "But they kept building it up," the president added, "and so the whole case ended in the court slapping them with two-year jail terms, so there you have it."

He continued: "I have nothing to do with this. They wanted it and they got it."

While Mr Medvedev said he was against the pair being jailed, he made clear that he would not lobby directly for their release. "This is not a question for me, but for our court system and for their defence lawyers," he said.